Decision time

Tuesday, March 20th is Illinois’ turn in the saga known as Election Day. I’ve been told that it’s been a really long time in which the results of the election would actually decide anything in national races such as the current GOP race for President. However, 50+ delegates are up-for-grabs on Tuesday, so every vote counts!!

I’ve made my decision but it took a process…a process that took some time to develop. More or less, it’s a process of elimination. Let me go down the list of reasons some people use to decide that I didn’t lean on to make my choice.

1) Race. This should be a no brainer, but ever since our current President was running for office and eventually won it’s been an issue (don’t believe me? How many times did you hear after the election that he was the 1st African-American elected President instead of the 44th President of the United States?). For some, because Barack Obama is African-American, that was all the information they needed to vote one way or the other (yes, for OR against him). I imagine many heard about how other caucasian voters voted AGAINST him based on that reason alone, but I’m sure they didn’t hear that it was the main reason some people voted FOR him. Apparently, other African-Americans voted for Barack Obama as though they shared a unique bond with him…similar to how Americans unify with one another and cheer on other Americans during the Olympics. Rather than looking at the inside of the man, they saw the outside and deemed him worthy to be our President.

2) Religion. This is a tougher reason to justify a political decision, as one of the GOP candidates is very public that he’s a Mormon. As I’ve stated in a previous post, Mormonism is not the same as Christianity. Many have heard that said of Mitt Romney and have tuned out anything he has to say after that. Please hear me, while I would prefer that the leader of our nation bows his knee to Jesus Christ and makes his tough decisions based on the perfect Word of God, it shouldn’t be the determining factor in the decision making process.

3) Record. Sometimes I wonder about the political ads that are on TV & radio. I HATE…repeat…HATE negative ads. Why? Because they have 30 seconds to force-feed you some truth (or someone else’s version of the truth) down your throat and fail to mention something: people are different. Whoa…shocking, right? It’s because of this that we have two very different political parties that rarely see eye-to-eye on issues. So what happens when a bill goes through congress?? Compromise. I have yet to hear about a bill that’s been passed through Congress that deals with one…and only one topic. In order to pay for a homeless shelter, you may have to also fund Planned Parenthood to appease those on the other side of the aisle. Unfortunately, by doing so (if you’re a Republican), you’re seen as helping fund Planned Parenthood (a no-no if you’re running on a pro-life platform) by voting FOR the bill or seen as heartless for voting AGAINST funding a homeless shelter. It happens all the time and I wish people would be wise to it and the tricks that are played in these ads.

4) Promises. When you think of a corrupt person, what line of work comes to mind? A used car salesman…sure. A lawyer…ok. A politician…um, yeah!!! Tons of promises are made during the campaign and hardly any actually get done. As an example, check out all the promises that President Obama made that he hasn’t lived up to. Politicians promise the world and somehow we’re shocked that they don’t deliver on that promise!! And we fall for it: hook, line and sinker…every time. When will we wise up?

So what types of things do I factor in to the decision making process? I think that if people looked at the office of the Presidency as one would for hiring an empty position at their workplace, we might be able to weed out the potentials quicker…possibly easier too. The Constitution has a list of prerequisites that a candidate must have and (up until the last Presidential election) there wasn’t even a question that the candidates met these requirements. So besides these, what do I look for?

1) Experience. Yes, I know that the office of the President has a maximum of two term limits, so I don’t mean experience as President of the United States. What I do mean is experience in the decision-making process. Fact is, the President doesn’t have to be the smartest guy in the room…but he’d be wise to surround himself with some of the smartest people and be able to make a decision based off the wise counsel of others. Governors of individual states typically have this experience (on a much smaller scale than that of the President however).

1a) Military experience. One of the titles of the President of the United States is “Commander-in-chief of the armed forces”. Although not essential, I believe that our President should have some experience in the military…if not from some time already served, then in some form of boot camp training after he/she’s elected President, so that they can fully grasp what chain-of-command truly means, as well as to put a face to the troops that he/she can send to defend our & our allies’ nation.

2) Leadership. The fact of the matter is that the office of the Presidency is a draining task. I’ve seen before/after photos of previous Presidents and let me tell you…it ain’t pretty. These guys have aged, at seemingly twice the pace that normal people do. I’m sure that there are multiple reasons for this, but I believe that one of the reasons why they appear to have aged so much is that they didn’t know how to lead a nation, government and ultimately the world (at least economically)…to the point where stress was maxed out everyday.

3) Integrity/Morals/Character. Ultimately, don’t you want to respect our President? To be proud that he’s the guy in charge? That you wished he was there longer than the maximum of two terms? To be the guy that the next generation looks to and says that our next President should be like him? I think that we all desire that…and that comes when we get the person that registers high in the integrity/morals/character area. Let me be clear here though…besides Christ, there is no else that is perfect. So please, stop looking for the “perfect candidate” because none exits. And please…stop getting surprised when so-and-so elected official is “caught” doing something wrong. Guess what…they’re human.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23 ESV

I saw a video the other day that I want to share. Don’t get me wrong, just because Santorum mentions character in this interview doesn’t mean that it’s the reason I want to cast my ballot in favor of him. Any of the candidates could’ve said this but I applaud him for saying it.

I think that this last point is one of the harder points to distinguish between candidates. But I do think that it’s displayed by the type of campaign that they ultimately run. Are you running a smear campaign where your objective is to make the opponent look so bad that they’ll vote for you instead? Or are you running a campaign that lists your accomplishments and your plan for the future of this country if elected. I personally think that the latter is the moral high ground…one that would earn you respect…and my vote. The last week or so, my house has been bombarded with negative telephone robo-calls…all of the national ones have been attacking Santorum, yet claiming to support Romney (without promoting any of his accomplishments/plans for the future). It’s gotten to the point where Romney appears to be a bully, and not a Presidential candidate. Nobody like a bully Mitt.

When this race started, I was pulling for Herman Cain. He had the leadership qualities that I thought this country could really use, especially economically. Since he is out of the race however, my vote is for Rick Santorum for President of the United States. If he’s ultimately not the Republican nominee, then my vote will be AGAINST Barack Obama.

 

Enraged

Do you ever have the experience of going through the motions of every day life and then, out of nowhere (seemingly) something triggers you to react almost opposite to your own nature? It’s like a stick of dynamite that is suddenly lit…an explosion is imminent. Initially you may think that I’m explaining something that was negative. But what happened to me the other day…well…I guess you can call it righteous anger. What bothers me is that, except for this blog and talking about it to others, there’s nothing I can really do about it…something that every guy is hardwired to try and “fix”.

Here’s what happened:
I was listening to the radio on my way home from work. My radio stations are pretty set…I’m either listening to KLOVE, the news or a conservative talk station. That night, I was listening to the conservative talk station talking about the current GOP candidates (since I know that people can read this post years after the fact, the field of candidates being talked about was Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum & Ron Paul). The candidate they were focusing on at the time was Mitt Romney. Now, let me start out by saying that Mitt Romney is not my favorite candidate…for a bunch of reasons. As many people know, Mitt Romney is a Mormon…a fact that has caused uneasiness in the conservative community. My guess is that uneasiness stems from not really knowing what Mormonism is and the differences between it and others religions. That guess was solidified when I heard one of the talk show hosts (technically, the one that said this line was a guest co-host) say that Mormonism was the same as Christianity.

Dynamite lit.

What?!?! How in the world could this guy say that? Saying the Mormonism is the same as Christianity is like saying that milk is the same as apple juice…there is only 1 characteristic that’s the same (in the milk/juice scenario it’s that they’re liquids. In the Mormonism/Christianity scenario, it’s that they are both religions). Though I was driving in my car, I wanted to pull over, call the station and tell them that they’re different…but then it hit me: to the world (that doesn’t know better because they aren’t actively attending church, reading their Bibles, engaging in theological conversation such as the Elephant Room, etc.) there is no difference. See, because I hold the Bible in the highest regards, as the Word of God, I can point out several differences between the two faiths…to the point that it’s CLEARLY obvious that they are no where near the same. However, if  you (or in this case, the guest co-host) don’t have that firm foundation, it won’t make any sense to you.

So many of you might be wondering why I’m making a big deal about this. I mean, “Mormons believe that Jesus is God and that should suffice…can’t we all just get along?” In a word, no. Not about this. Mormonism is not a denomination of Christianity!! Paul preached about unity in the church, but he also preached about certain areas that are foundational to get fired up about…areas that Mormons and Christians differ on. In Ephesians 4, Paul gives us the list:

There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. – Ephesians 4:4-6, ESV

You might be wondering (as a lot of people are), “Where exactly to Mormons and Christians differ?” I know I wondered. I mean, I knew enough to know that they were different…enough to get angry. But at the time, I didn’t know in what specific areas they’re different. After all, the majority of my life I’ve focused on learning/accepting/following the teachings of Christ, found in the Word of God…not what other faiths teach or where they’re taught from. So I looked it up online and came across this comparison where the two faiths differ theologically. Later (as I was writing this blog post) I came upon a blog post from Justin Taylor, one of my wife’s co-workers, who gave a similar comparison. As you can see, there are (through worldly eyes) similarities…but also some major differences. Different enough to be a cult? Well…I won’t get into that discussion at this point, but I will say that it’s definitely NOT the same as Christianity.

 

Just ran across a forwarded email…

that I thought was pretty funny. As we’re gearing up for another political season, this email makes me laugh…

 

I have often wondered why it is that Conservatives are called the “right” and Liberals are called the “left.”

By chance I stumbled upon this verse in the Bible:

The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left .   Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV)

Thus sayeth the Lord.  Amen.

 

Last night…

I heard on the evening news something that really troubled me. Back in November, one of the election races in Illinois was for Governor. The incumbent (due to the previous Governor being impeached) won the election, even though he ran on a campaign of raising state income taxes. At the time, he said a 1% state income tax hike. Last night, we were told that what’s being proposed is a 2.25% state income tax hike.

This is nuts. When will democrats figure this out? Biting the hand that feeds you is no way to run a business…or a state. Just like what happened in California and New York, when taxes were raised, people who were able to fled to a state that either didn’t have state income taxes or had lower taxes than what they had. If this is passed in Illinois, you can expect the same results (no, I’m not saying that I’ll move…but it will that much tougher not to want to). For those of you counting, fewer people in Illinois also equates to less money being obtained from income taxes. Taking this into account, wouldn’t the wise thing be to decrease taxes instead to attract people to the state? Common sense, right?

After that glorious news, we were told that the lawmakers in Springfield are also considering to do away with the death penalty on a permanent basis. Wow. Well…I guess it makes sense, seeing as there won’t be anyone left to sentence to die in Illinois since everyone is going to move due to the tax rate hike.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

 

The world will change

It’s being called D-day…a day that may live in infamy. What day is that? Election day 2010.  I’ve made no apologies for my politcal beliefs: I am a conservative…not a Republican or a Democrat. It’s true, many of the beliefs that I hold onto run in line with the Republican party, but I’ve felt that the past few years the Republican party has chosen candidates (at least in my home state of Illinois) that have strayed from what I thought the Republican party stood for. For example, it used to be that a Republican candidate wouldn’t march in a ‘gay parade’ or would be a Pro-life supporter. Not the case anymore. Don’t believe me? Here’s a link about Judy Baar Topinka (who is running in this election for Comptroller), who was the Republican candidate for governor a few years ago. Currently, Mark Kirk is running for US Senate for the state of Illinois and has voted time and time again in favor of abortion, claiming that he’s an independent in doing so.

I think one of the reasons that these types of candidates are so popular is that Illinois is traditionally a Democratic state. So, in order to get more independent and Democratic votes, candidates are chosen that are more socially moderate than what the national Republican party might have chosen. Well, I refuse to vote for these individuals. As I’ve written before, “If you think a fetus doesn’t deserve to breathe, my vote you shall NEVER receive!”

Believe it or not, there is a reason to my stand and it comes from scripture:

So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. [Romans 14:12, ESV]

I believe that one day, I’ll have to give an explanation for the choices I’ve made. And yes, I believe that will include why I voted for a certain candidate. Beyond this, can I really let myself believe that voting for ‘the lesser of two evils’ will give my spirit peace? In fact it won’t…and I’m glad it doesn’t.

So, this election day, I won’t be voting against beliefs I hold dear, to bow to public pressure. No matter the outcome, it will be a momentous day…one that many have been looking forward to for a long time. The hope is that the change to fiscal conservatism will bring not just economic stability but also growth. One wonders if this can be achieved on man-made principles, without the leading of God Almighty.

Oh, before I jet, check out the voter guides from the Illinois Family institute here. Many issues are covered within them and can help you with your voting on Tuesday. Obviously, they cover only the races in Illinois.